sushi e — Restaurant in Sydney

Tried the omakase. Cons: -For an omakase, more than half of the courses were prepared by the kitchen staff instead of our chef (he did not introduce himself). The meal also lacked the intimacy of omakase as the chef would serve sushi to other diners and talk among his colleagues than provide us with his undivided attention. It felt more of a set menu than omakase. -There was a poor quality of care throughout the meal. Tempura fish with bones still inside, a crab salad with the inside joints mixed throughout the meat, dirty cutlery for dessert, long wait times between courses (total of a 3 hour meal for a quiet monday night) did not make for a good experience. -Bad sushi rice. It was not prepared and seasoned well resulting in a dry clump of rice which left an unpleasant lingering sour aftertaste. No matter what high quality fish you pair with this rice, it will not be able to shine. -Redundant pairings for sushi. Why serve aburi fatty gill meat as a garnish on top of a lean white fish nigiri? Why serve uni as a garnish on top of a lean piece of tuna? Overpowering garnishes taking away the spotlight from delicate fish is an amateur move. -Awkward/forced flavour profiles. Yuzu mayo sounds interesting until you realise you cannot taste a primary yuzu or mayo flavour. Just an awkward bland inbetween. Forcing uni (when it is not yet in season) and caviar on dishes to make it seem more glamorous backfires when the flavour profile is not taken to account. The uni with lean tuna example listed earlier and the caviar salt bomb when paired with the quail egg (it is not as nice as it looks) are disappointing when ingested. -Creativity over functionality. Entrees are served as appetisers to open you up to the mains. This was the case until cold soba was served. Cold soba as in soba noodles in an ice dashi slushie. On paper it is an interesting approach but in reality, thats just going to upset my stomach especially considering that i am expected to eat raw foods. -Not making the most of ingredients. This is a Merivale restaurant. The access to quality ingredients is definately present. In cases like this where simpler is better would be the correct approach. A dry aged groper sashimi with konbu puree, sea grapes and dressing was served. The groper was delicious on its own with a brilliant umami flavour from the aging process. All of this was eliminated with the very heavy konbu and sour dressing. This was the case for other nigiri pieces the chef served. Either fresh sweet scampi or nice aged fish just blowtorched leaving a smoky flavour (which isnt bad at all, just redundant) with hints of what it used to be.

Pros: -Very polite staff -When things worked, they were delicious. Simple things like the snapper soup really captured the depth of flavour brought out by the fish. The abalone rice was also very good. But then again, this was just a simplified version of what Dan Hong made on his insta (abalone and lobster rice). So this chinese food was one of the better dishes of the omakase ....

Overall: There is definately room for improvement seeing as omakase is still very new for sushi e. In the meantime, go somewhere else that knows...

Sushi e was immaculate. The umami of the salmon sashimi was superb; you could tell the chef had selected a very fine piece of salmon from the market. The sashimi slices were both refined and generous at the same time. You were definitely getting your value for money when dining at sushi e for their sashimi. The armorhead sashimi that they served on the sashimi platter was something out of this world.

The Koji marinated Patagonian Toothfish was beyond memorable. I order this all the time. The Toothfish is charcoal grilled, yet it maintained such bounciness in flavor, texture, and overall "oomph" in the depth of umami that you experience in your mouth.

The maguro served shined brighter than the kingfish, the sushi rice had a good balance of sweetness and savoriness , however the nigiri was not as impactful as their sashimi alone, I believe that they can go further beyond. I have high expectations of this venue - I would like to see them achieve more in their establishment, as I can see them as a potential forerunner within the Japanese dining industry. If they polish the sushi rice a bit more , they can compete with the upper echelon of the Omakase space.

Pertaining service, the servers were extremely eloquent and maintained the standard of an upper class Japanese restaurant.

Sushi e has the ambience of a refined 1980s Japanese sushi bar and a waiting area where you could order their oysters as an entree before even dining in the establishment properly.

I have visited this restaurant thrice and it has been 3 for 3. I would highly recommend this venue if you are after Japanese...

the oysters were good quality and went well with the ponzu sauce!

The kingfish was was really nice as well I recommend this dish! It was really light and fresh!

The sashimi was all really good and the salmon was a personal favourite! It was so creamy.

The beef tartare was really nice with the egg yolk and the meat was really firm and creamy with everything all combined. The cracker complemented it really nicely too with a fun crunch.

The salmon nigiris were good as well, nothing specifically stand out but it was just spend well.

The toothfish was really good! It was so soft and there was a little saltiness which was nice! The finger line was also another fun texture.

I had a zucchini flower special which isn’t pictured but i didn’t quite enjoy that dish as much as the others.

It was all finished off with the complimentary pannacotta!

Overall the food and atmosphere was really good and perfect for pairs/couples as you are seated in the bar facing the chefs preparing food!

The main disappointment I had was the service, our water wasn’t refilled the entire time we were there, which is something I feel we shouldn’t have to request, especially at the price point for the restaurant. Even when the waiters would come around they weren’t very attentive. They seemed quite inexperienced or not well trained as they often had to go back and reconfirm with the chef what certain dishes were, which was a...